Space suppression by-pass



May 12, 1959 B. F. MADSEN SPACE SUPPRESSION BY-EASS 3 Shee'cs-Sheerl 1Filed O01.. ll, 19,55

TTORNEY May 12, 1959 B. FQ MADSVEN SPACE SUPPRESSION BY-PAss 3Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. ll, 1955 INVENTOR BERTHEL F. MADSEN fw /fTTORNEY May 12, 1959 B'F. `MADSEN v 2,885,637

SPACE:l SUPPRESSION BY-PAss Filed oct. 11, 1955 'Y ssneets-sheet sINVENTOR BERTHEL F. MADSEN BY W7 A TORNEY United SPACE SUPPRESSIONBY-PASS Berthel F. Madsen, Arlington Heights, Ill., assigner to TeletypeCorporation, Chicago, lll., a corporation ci Delaware ApplicationOctober 11, 1955, Serial No. 539,892

2 Claims. (Cl. 178-25) This invention relates to printing telegraphapparatus and more particularly to providing a page printer with ahorizontal tabulating means therefor, whereby the type carrier may beadvanced a predetermined amount along the platen in response to aprearranged signal.

On printers equipped with horizontal tabulation,l it is sometimesdesired to tabulate beyond a predetermined right-hand marginal stopwithout having to reset said stop. With existing methods of preventingcharacter spacing when the carriage reaches the right-hand marginposition, it is not possible to tabulate beyond the margin setting.Moreover, if tabulation is attempted beyond the right margin setting,jamming and damage will occur. This jamming action will occur after thespacing drum has rotated to bring the printer carriage to the right-handmargin position. At this time, the space cutout lever located on thespacing drum of the printer according to the present invention engagesthe spacing cutout transfer bail. During normal spacing when thisengagement occurs, the transfer bail is rotated slightly, therebyoperating the space suppression mechanism, which prevents tripping ofthe space clutch and precludes additional spacing. However, whentabulating wherein the spacing clutch will remain tripped, the spacingdrum will continue to rotate and the lever attached to the spacing drumwould (unless prevented by the device according to the presentinvention) jam against the transfer bail. Consequently, since said leveris unable to by-pass the transfer bail, damage will occur. Therefore, inorder to permit the space cut-out lever, located on the spacing drum, toby-pass the transfer bail during horizontal tabulation, the spacesuppression by-pass mechanism according to the present invention, isprovided.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a means for rapidlyadvancing the type carrier across the platen to any predetermined pointthereon.

Another object of the invention is to provide a space suppressionby-pass mechanism so as to prevent injury to the parts of the printerthrough jamming.

A further object is to provide a simple and effective means forcontrolling the printing carriage through its own movement.

Other objects and features of the invention will be apparent from acomplete understanding of the invention which will be more readilyacquired by reference to the following description when considered inconjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective View of a page printer embodying the presentinvention;

Fig. 2 is a left side elevation of the tabulating mechanism and spaceclutch;

Fig. 3 is an elevation showing the space suppression by-pass mechanism;

Fig. 4 is a detail view of the space suppression by-pass mechanism; and

Fig. 5 is a front elevation of the spacing and tabulating mechanism.

The horizontal tabulating mechanism is illustrated in Patented May 12,1959 a telegraph page printer of the type disclosed in United StatesPatent No. 2,505,729, granted April 25, 1950, to W. I. Zenner, whichdisclosure is incorporated herein by reference, and made a part hereof.

The tabular mechanism is activated by a signal operated function bar,under the selective control of a signal controlled means, exemplified byselector magnet 10, in Fig. 1, which causes the spacing clutch to beheld unlatched and at the same time conditions the latching means to bedisabled in response to the movement of the printing carriage camagainst an adjustable tab stop on the tabular rail. ln ordinaryoperation, spacing is suppressed at some predetermined point of theprinting carriage travel across the platen. In order that the tabulation may take place beyond this margin point, a space suppressionby-pass mechanism is provided to allow the spacing wheel to rotatewithout forcing or jamming any of the elements of the space suppressionmechanism.

Referring to the drawings wherein like reference nui merals representlike elements throughout, and more particularly to Figs. 3 and 5, thespacing mechanism which is more fully described in the United StatesPatent No. 2,701,045, issued February l, 1955, to B. F. Madsen is shown.As set forth in the aforementioned Madsen patent, a pair of spacingpawls 64 and 66 (Fig. 5) are each mounted on an eccentric cam 63 andhave their pawl end associated with a spacing wheel 67. The spacingpawls 64 and 66 are driven, through their respective eccentric cams 63which are in turn driven by shaft and gear (not shown) under control ofthe spacing clutch 53 (Fig. 3).

The spacing clutch 53 is held against rotation by the lower extension 51of the clutch trip lever assembly 49.. Under normal spacing conditions,the lower extension 51 is moved out of engagement with the projection 52on the spacing clutch 53 by rotation of the main rocker shaft 54 in aclockwise (Fig. 3) direction which moves the cam plate 59 against thelatch lever bail 56 thereby moving the latch lever upward until theprojection 61 is engaged with the shoulder 62 on the latch lever 57. Asthe printing cycle continues, the rocker arm 54 returns to its originalposition thereby moving the bail 5,6 and lever 57 downward to rotate theclutch trip lever as'- sembly 49 clockwise about its pivot 4S todisengage the lower extension 51 from the clutch projection 52 to allowthe clutch to rotate and operate a gear means (not shown) and therebyrotate the eccentric cams 63 (Fig. 5 to impart reciprocative motion tothe spacing pawls 64 and twhich in turn impart rotary motion to thespacing wheel 67 which, of course, advances the type carri-age as isdescribed in the aforementioned Zenner and Madsen patents. As the clutch53 rotates, the restoring cam 68 rotates and contacts the arm 69 of thelatch lever 5 7 to rotate the lever 57 out of latching relationship withthe trip lever assembly 49 so as to allow the trip lever assembly 49 tobe rotated into latching engagement prior to one third of a revolutionof the clutch 5,3.

Space suppression on certain functions is accomplished by the functionlever (not shown) moving the spacing suppression bail 71 against thespacing suppression slide 72 to move the slide 72 to the right (Fig. 3)thus causing the pin '73 to contact the extension 74 of the latch lever57 out of engagement with the horizontal extension 58 of the trip leverassembly 49. p

Space suppression at the right-hand portion of the type carriage travelis controlled by the adjustable cutout lever 77 which is mounted on thespacing wheel 67; As the spacing wheel 67 rotates to thereby advance thecarriage, the cut-out lever 77 will contact the suppression transferbail extension lever 74, the structure and func-` tion of which will bediscussed later, to operate the suppression lever 78. As the suppressiontransfer baill 81ris rotated countercloclwise (Fig. 3) the projection7.5,

on the upper extension 76 of the suppression lever 78 moves thesuppression slide 72 to the right to suppress the spacing operation asset forth above.

' Referring now to Fig. 2, a pawl mounting lever 11 is suitably mountedon the printing `carriage assembly (Fig. 1), at the point 12 with a pawl13 mounted thereon in a position to contact an adjustable tabulator stop14 which is adapted to be selectively positioned on the tabulator shaftassembly 16. Rigidly attached to the shaft assembly 16 is the shaftextension 17 which is in turn pivotally connected with the blocking link18 at a point 19. The lower portion 21 of the blocking link 18 isslidably connected to a pin 22 to allow vertical movement of theblocking member 18.

A tabular slide arm 23 is positioned to be moved to the right, as seenin Fig. 2 by the tabular function lever 25 in the familiar manner whichis described in the Zenner patent. An operating lever cam plate 24 ispositioned to be moved along with the slide arm through cooperation ofthe projection 26 and the shoulder 27` An operating lever 28 ispivotally mounted on the frame at the point 29 and is articulated withthe cam plate 24 by a pivoted connector 31. An operating lever extension88 is pivotally connected to the lower portion of the operating lever 28and is in blocking relationship with the blocking link 18. A latch leveradjusting plate 32 is rigidly fastened to the operating lever 28. Alatch lever having two separate projections 33 and 34 is pivotallyattached to the adjusting plate 32 and is normally urged against theextension 36 of the adjusting plate by ythe action of the spring 37which is positioned between the extension 33 and the projection 60 onthe operating lever 28. The arm 34 of the latch lever has a Iatchingsurface on its upper end which is associated with the horizontalextension 58 of the lever assembly 49 to selectively hold the leverassembly 49 in its rotated position. A blocking extension 88 ispivotally xed to the lower extremity of the operating lever 28 and itsouter projection 79 is so positioned as to be selectively blocked by theextension 21 of the lever 18.

Referring now to Fig. 4 which shows the space suppression transfer bailassembly in detail. Suppression transfer bail 81 is pivotally fastenedto the frame of the printer by its pin 82 and has a second pin 83rigidly fixed at its lower extremity 84. The suppression transfer bailextension lever 74 is held in elastic contact with the pins 82 and 83 ofhousing 81 by the spring 86 which is positioned between the projection87 on the transfer bail extension lever 74 and the projection 90 of thetransfer bail 81 with sucient tension that as the transfer bailextension lever 74 is pivoted in a clockwise direction (Fig. 4), thetransfer bail 81 will be pivoted with it. If the transfer bail 81 is notpermitted to rotate for any reason, the transfer bail extension lever 74is permitted to pivot counterclockwise (Fig. 4) about the pin 82 orclockwise about Ithe pin 83 against the tension of the spring 86 withoutany further movement of the transfer bail 81. This, of course, permitsthe tabulatng to take place beyond the right-hand margin limit and alsopermits the spacing wheel to be returned in the normal manner withoutjamming the mechanism.

When a tabulation signal is received, a function bar 25 is selected inthe usual manner and moved to the right (Fig. 2) to move the tabulatorslide 23 in that direction. The cam plate 24 is thus moved to the rightby cooperation of the projection 26 on the slide 23 and the shoulder 27on the cam plate 24. Rightward movement of the cam plate 24 pivots theoperating lever 28 clockwise (Fig. 2) about its pivot point 29 so thatthe extension link 88 moves to the left to allow the blocking link tomove upward in response to the clockwise rotation of the 'shaft assembly16 by its spring 15 (Figs. 1 and 5), so that the laterally directedlower end of the lower portion 21 of the blocking lever 18 is inposition to engage the vertical surface of the outer extremity ofprojection 79 of the blocking link 88 to thereby prevent the operatinglever 28 from returning to its normal position.

As the operating lever 28 is pivoted clockwise, the latch lever 33 isrotated by the spring 37 in the same direction until the projection 34of the latch lever 35 engages the projection on the spacing trip leverarm 58 and is urged thereagainst by the spring 37. At this point in thecycle the normal spacing action as described in the afore-mentionedZenner patent occurs by the main rocker shaft 54 being rotated clockwise(Fig. 3) so the cam plate 59 raises the latching lever 57 so that theshoulder 62 engages the projection 61 on the member 58 and is moveddownward by the spring 89 when the rocker shaft 54 and its cam plate 59return to their normal position. Downward movement of the latching leverpivots the clutch trip lever assembly 49 about its pivot point 48 andmoves the extension 51 out of blocking engagement with the projection 52on the clutch 53 to allow the clutch to rotate. As the horizontal arm 58of the trip lever assembly 49 is moved downward it is latched by theextension 34 of the tabulating latch lever. The spacing clutch isthereby free to rotate and operate the spacing wheel 6 7 as mentionedabove and as more fully described in the afore-mentioned Madsen patentso long as the operating lever 28 is in its rotated position. As theclutch rotates, the stripper arm 91 is pivoted clockwise (Fig. 2) by therestoring cam 68 to move the operating lever cam plate 24 downward outof engagement with the slide arm 23 so that the operating lever 28 dropsback slightly until the lever extension link 88 butts up against theblocking portion of the lower portion 21 of lever 18. In the event thatthe subsequent tabulator stop is only one space from the point where thetabulating signal is received, the blocking lever 18 will have beenmoved out of its blocking position so that the operating lever 28 willreturn to its normal position to release the lever 49-to thereby blockfurther rotation of the clutch 53. This is necessary because the lever25 is not returned to its unactivated position until the spacingmechanism has advanced the carriage more than one space.

As the type carriage assembly 20 is moved across the platen by thespacing wheel 67, the pawl 13 on the hinged lever 11, which is a part ofthe carriage assembly, contacts the selectively mounted tabulator stop14 on the tabulator rocker shaft 16 and causes the shaft 16 to berotated in a counterclockwise (Fig. 2) direction, thereby moving theblocking lever 18 downward to unblock the extension link 88 of theoperating lever 28 and allow the lever 28 to return to its normalposition. As the operating lever 28 returns to its rest position, thelatch lever 35 is also moved to the left thereby releasing the clutchtrip lever assembly 49 to allow it to be rotated counterclockwise (Figs.2 and 3) by its spring 50 to block further rotation of the clutch 53.

As the spacing wheel 67 rotates, the space cut out lever 77 will contactthe transfer bail extension lever 74 on the space suppression mechanism(Fig. 4) and pivots the transfer bail 81 about the pin 82 to pivot,through extension 76, the suppression lever 78 clockwise so that theprojection moves the suppression slide 72 to the right to move the triplever 57 out of engagement to suppress spacing as above described. Inthe event that the tabulating mechanism has taken over so that the aboveaction would result in jamming there is provided a space suppressionby-pass wherein the transfer bail extension lever 74 is positioned onthe transfer bail 81 by means of two C shaped brackets 93 and 94cooperating with the pins 83 and 82 respectively and the spring 86 sothat the transfer bail extension lever 74 may pivot independently of thetransfer bail 81 in response to a force in either up or down directionwhen the force becomes sufcient to overcome the tension of the spring86. It can p readily be seen that this results in the space cut outlever 77 on the spacing wheel 67 being allowed to pass the transfer bailextension lever 74 without. undue forcing or jamming and that oncehaving passed, it may be returned when the spacing wheel is returned toits left-hand margin position.

It is understood that the above-described arrangements are merelyillustrative of the applications of the principles of the invention.Other arrangements may be devised by those skilled in the art which willembody the principles of the invention and fall within the spirit andscope thereof.

What is claimed is:

1 In a telegraph printer, a movable type carriage, a spacing wheel,means for advancing said carriage in proportion to the rotation of saidwheel, a power means for rotating said wheel, a trip means operable toinitiate actuation of said power means during a predetermined portion ofeach printing cycle, a space cut-out lever rigidly Xed to said spacingwheel, a space suppression transfer bail assembly comprising a transferbail and a transfer bail extension lever, said transfer bail extensionlever having two open sided bearing sockets poistioned to facilitaterotation of said extension lever by said space cut-out lever at apredetermined point of spacing wheel rotation, and a space suppressionlever operable to render said trip means inelfective, said transfer bailextension lever yieldably mounted on said transfer bail by pivot pins ateach of said bearing sockets, whereby the transfer bail extension leverwill pivot about the transfer bail in either direction when theresistance to rotation of the transfer bail exceeds a predeterminedamount.

2. In a recorder, a traveling carriage, recording mechanism carriedthereby, a rst means for effecting normal spacing movement of saidcarriage, a carriage return mechanism, a second means for effecting thecontinuous movement of said carriage through variable sequences ofcharacter spaces, a third means effective at a predetermined point inthe travel of said carriage for rendering said first means unable toeffect said normal spacing movement of said carriage, and meanscomprising a dually pivotable instrumentality having yieldablefacilities cooperable with said third means, whereby to and fro movementof said carriage under the control of said second means to a pointbeyond said predetermined point and return therefrom by said carriagereturn mechanism is facilitated.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,904,164 Morton et al Apr. 18, 1933 2,250,717 Long July 29, 19412,349,674 Potts May 23, 1944 2,390,664 rPotts Dec. 11, 1945

